Across from 4840 Likini St. in Salt Lake, hidden in the bushes, is a trailer with a white shack on it. It's an eyesore. Is it legally parked? Ellison Onizuka Archery
Training Center pendingThe trailer is there temporarily as an office on wheels for what organizers hope will soon become the Ellison Onizuka Archery Training Center.
The city parks department is in the process of entering into a "memorandum of agreement" with the center's nonprofit group, "which will be partnering with the city to clear the area and provide archery recreational opportunities for the public," said parks spokeswoman Patti Nagao.
The department is also in the process of obtaining ownership of an access area from the Board of Water Supply. Once that's done, the trailer will be moved, she said.
Larry Paglinawan, president of the archers group, said the project is supported by the Salt Lake Neighborhood Board, with work to be done mostly by volunteers and through fund-raising.
Because of a "miscommunication," volunteers, with city permission, began clearing the bottom area for an entranceway, he said. But it's clear now that access to the range will be from the top of a 350-foot cliff, he said.
The range will be enclosed, and archers will have to meet minimum qualifications to use it.
Asked why the center is named after Onizuka, the Hawaii-born astronaut who was killed in the explosion of the Challenger shuttle in 1986, Paglinawan said an archery company in Florida suggested doing something in his memory. Onizuka had often spent his spare time shooting archery in a hangar at the space training center, he said.
The family was approached and gave its permission to use his name about 10 years ago, confirmed Onizuka's brother, Claude.
"For the last 10 years, we've been talking to the state, city and federal (officials) to get an archery range with his name," Paglinawan said. Many community groups also were pitched, and "the only one receptive to us was the Salt Lake Neighborhood Board."
"Four years later, we're still waiting," he said. The only question now, he said, is "when do we get in. We don't know."
Nagao likened the project to the YMCA Skatepark below the Kapahulu freeway: It is "another community/city-sponsored recreation facility constructed and operated at no cost to the taxpayers."
It also will provide a much-needed permanent training and certification center, Paglinawan said.
Two co-workers told me they don't take the health care plan that our boss provides, and instead get free health care at Kaiser through Quest. How is it that two full-time workers can get free care while I have to pay? They both have children, if that makes a difference. On the face of it, it sounds like your co-workers should be getting their primary insurance through your employer, with Quest as their secondary insurer.
Without details, it's difficult to give a definitive answer, said state Med-Quest spokeswoman Barbara Bianchi-Kai.
"As a rule, people who are eligible for employer-sponsored insurance are not eligible for Quest," she said. However, the exceptions are recipients of Aid for Families with Dependent Children (welfare) or General Assistance (G.A.).
If someone is receiving either payment and is employed, "their income would have to be very low," Bianchi-Kai said. Also, such beneficiaries automatically qualify for Medicaid, so Quest would be a secondary insurer.
Call 587-3521 with questions or to report possible violations.
To Waikiki Aquarium for calling 911 and Jane, a volunteer, who cared for my children while I got the license number of the car carrying people responsible for breaking into my vehicle. - M.B. Mahalo
